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Compiling Python Code (Pyinstaller)

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Ryan Thomas edited this page Dec 1, 2023 · 9 revisions

PyInstaller Guide: Opening this issue to document possible options to use with pyinstaller until we get this nailed down.

Standard pyinstaller arguments for GUI application

--onefile --noconsole --icon=stormcloud.ico

Change name as it appears in task manager? (Untested)

--win-private-assemblies --name "Stormcloud Backup Engine"

Hidden imports from infi.systray library

--hidden-import pkg_resources --hidden-import infi.systray

Manifest file to require administrative permissions

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="Stormcloud.app"/>
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
        <requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
      </requestedPrivileges>
    </security>
  </trustInfo>
</assembly>

Save as app.manifest and include the switch: --manifest app.manifest

All together

pyinstaller --onefile --noconsole --icon=stormcloud.ico --hidden-import pkg_resources --hidden-import infi.systray stormcloud.py

Compiling pyinstaller from source

We are still popping on 4 AVs that VirusTotal scans with (Cynet, McAfee-GW-Edition, DeepInstinct, and SecureAge). These are all pretty fringe/sucky AVs so we might just be able to ignore these unless we find a customer who is actually using one of them.

Here's what I managed to do on my system to get it to work:

  1. Nuke all Visual Studio related stuff (run visual studio installer, go to more -> uninstall, and remove everything)
  2. Re-download only the 2022 Visual Studio Build Tools (https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/ -> go to "Tools for Visual Studio" section -> "Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022"
  3. git clone the pyinstaller source to C:\PyInstaller
  4. cd C:\Pyinstaller\pyinstaller\bootloader
  5. python.exe ./waf distclean all
  6. I have no idea why, but running with distclean appears to find the cl.exe file associated with MSVC, if you run it without distclean, it will not find it.
  7. cd C:\Pyinstaller\pyinstaller
  8. pip install .
  9. If that works, it should add the pyinstaller EXE to your path
  10. Rebuilt stormcloud with this pyinstaller and uploaded to VT

VirusTotal for current versions

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